Residents swamp officials in Florida with cleanup ideas

by Jim Ash - Jun. 5, 2010 12:00 AMGannett

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The ideas range from antimatter beamed from satellites to the lowly hay bale. If anything, they show how creative Floridians can get when their way of life is threatened by the worst oil spill in the nation's history.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole, who is leading the state's response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, invited the public to submit any and all suggestions on May 14. Several hundred have poured in to innovative .technology@dep.state.fl.us since.

Some of them, including a vermiculite-based oil absorbent offered by a southern Florida concrete manufacturer, are under serious consideration.

Many, including vendors hawking chemical dispersants not approved for use, have been quickly dismissed.

"While the state appreciates the concern expressed by Floridians and the ingenuity of those seeking alternative measures to help protect the state's shoreline, it is important to ensure that proposed measures are helpful and not harmful," DEP spokeswoman Amy Graham said in a statement.

Hay bales were nixed by DEP as inappropriate when county emergency managers suggested them last month, but they remain popular with armchair engineers.

Gov. Charlie Crist is under fire from some critics for not being tough enough on BP or for not responding quickly enough to protect the state's tourism industry.

By far the most unconventional idea, using satellites and supercomputers to zap the spill with a beam that renders the oil harmless, is getting short shrift - at least according to its most ardent proponent, Anthony Brown II of Boynton Beach.

Brown makes an activated clay product that drillers use to remove oil from their waste stream. It's being considered by spill responders in Louisiana, he said.